The Tenant

Blake Porter has the life he always wanted — a brownstone, a marketing VP title, a fiancée he adores — right up until he’s abruptly fired and can no longer cover the mortgage. Desperate for income and unwilling to admit how bad things have gotten, he and his fiancée, Krista, decide to rent out a spare room, and Whitney seems like the perfect tenant: easygoing, charming, exactly what they need. Then the small wrongnesses start. The neighbors begin treating Blake strangely, an unshakable smell of decay seeps through the house, and noises wake him in the night. As his paranoia mounts, Blake becomes convinced someone has uncovered the things he’s worked hardest to hide — and by the time he understands what’s living under his own roof, the trap has already closed. The novel uses status, secrets, and a slow domestic unraveling to set up a late perspective shift.